Ringing recovery D032486

From time to time news arrives from the BTO updating me on a bird I have ringed- one such encounter arrived today.

Sedge Warbler Ring no. D032486
Ringed 27th July 2014 Found: 22nd August 2015, Noáin, Navarra, Spain.
Controlled by another ringer.
Found 391 days after ringing, 973 kilometres from the southern Medway estuary.

Quoting the Migration Atlas:

...pre-migratory movements of Sedge Warblers begin in late July, with birds apparently searching for sites with high densities of Plum-reed Aphids... ...autumn migration occurs mainly during August to October...

So far, so good, wandering juvenile July 2014, active migration August 2015. But:

...relatively few Sedge Warblers have been recovered in Iberia during autumn migration...

An interesting report was now a very interesting report. The reason for the low number of Iberian encounters in autumn is, once fattened, Sedge warblers tend to migrate by way of a rapid long-distance flight right over Iberia and even the Sahara to reach their wintering grounds without additional fattening.

So why did D032486 put down early?

We can only guess. Internal factor- sick? Or external? Well, here the warnings had gone out on Thursday 20th for a “Spanish plume” arriving from Iberia, with a forecast for imminent hot and humid weather, including very heavy rain and thunderstorms. Perhaps D032486 had set out from Southern UK/ northern France in good conditions, but then run into bad weather? Perhaps. One can dream. Only once the European Ringing Schemes have enough data can they begin to make sense of these more unusual recoveries.